'I had to make a plan, so I sat down and considered my options.' So here was her answer. She would start a farming venture to earn and save enough money for college.

After graduating from McGrath High in St Catherine, Patricia Smith, like so many school-leaving teenagers, didn't have the financial support to take her dream to the next level.

"My parents just couldn't afford to send me to teachers' college. They simply didn't have the money," she said.

The youngest of four children, Smith lived with her parents in Ewarton, St Catherine, where they practised subsistence farming on a plot of land to feed the household.

Her determination to become a teacher led her to put her career on hold while she earned enough money to begin her studies.

"I had to make a plan, so I sat down and considered my options. I had actually picked up a package from Shortwood Teachers' College but even if I were able to get a student loan to cover the tuition, the long list of books and personal items I'd need for my first year alone would be far out of my reach."

As Smith looked at the possibilities open to her, it dawned on her that her parents had supported the entire family by farming, using techniques handed down from their ancestors. She decided to pursue agricultural science to the Caribbean Examinations Council level to improve on her family's techniques.

To cover costs

So here was her answer. She would start a farming venture to earn and save enough money to cover the cost of the pre-qualifying examination to enter Shortwood Teachers' College, and buy her books and other necessities for her first year.

She did not have much land because her parents lived and farmed on less than an acre. However, she forged ahead, planting pak choi and other vegetables. With one square of land in production, Smith applied the best practices she had learned in her agricultural science classes at McGrath High and was able to reap 400 pounds of vegetables in six-week crop cycles.

She sold directly to other small farmers, as well as to higglers. She took the surplus directly to Linstead market.

Smith graduated from Shortwood in November 2008, having won the coveted Carlong Publishers' award for above-average performance in Spanish.

Agri-business programme

McGrath High now boasts a fully integrated agri-business programme.

It has been eight years since Smith left McGrath High and, in that time, the scope of the agricultural science department has been expanded to include a more integrated programme.

The students in this programme not only receive hands-on exposure to best practices in primary production but, using the value-chain approach, are also involved in the harvesting, processing and marketing of the end products.

The department produces, processes and sells an average of 500 pounds of chicken to the school canteen weekly. With technical assistance from the Scientific Research Council, they established a Bureau of Standards-approved coconut-water bottling unit. The coconut water produced is sold to Linstead supermarkets, as well as to the school canteen.

The man behind this programme is Okemo Duckie, who holds an associate degree from the College of Agriculture, Science and Education and a Bachelor of Technology in environmental science.